Reading Time: 1minute With the Patriot Act debate raging in Congress, there has perhaps never been a better time to consider what’s at stake. And what is that? Most of us never really knew. But this documentary, from Executive Producer Robert Greenwald and Earl Katz, directed by Nonny de la Peña, whose work has been funded by a MacArthur grant and shown at TriBeCa Film Festival, spelled it all out a decade ago, and is as relevant as ever.

Reading Time: 1minute In this fourth excerpt from a recent talk, WhoWhatWhy editor Russ Baker discusses propaganda, how we view our country and the world, the issues that matter, and more. You may also watch his complete talk.

Reading Time: 5minutes Somehow, the leaks of NSA documents on the fragility of democracy have been turned around into public criticism of the leaker. The conservative press wants us to focus on Edward Snowden’s girlfriend. Ok, fine. Here’s that picture. Happy? Now can we move on to what’s really happening in this country—and why it’s so hard to speak the truth about it?

Reading Time: 8minutes If, as his supporters contend, Obama is a good, caring man whose instincts are right, why has he not taken any of these modest steps to rein in surveillance excesses? A checklist of options.

Reading Time: 1minute Radio host and noted Libertarian Lew Rockwell has a few questions for Russ Baker about the Boston Bombing—and the larger framework of militarism, propaganda, media failures, and other issues related to the security state and freedom. Russ has a few answers.

Reading Time: 5minutes When a country is truly run by a handful, how can they ever let up on surveillance? They can’t, and won’t. But we can make them do it. However, not if we wait for instructions from the establishment.

Reading Time: 5minutes The Obama Administration is not being completely straight with us when it comes to the Occupy protests. A growing body of documentation suggests that the Department of Homeland Security is deeply involved in coordinating surveillance of protesters—and maybe more.

Reading Time: 4minutes A court decision says that public broadcasting outlets need not avoid political ads and the related sludgefest. Defenders of the sanctity of those outlets say they need to remain pure. But how pure, really, are they?

Reading Time: 4minutes Twitter’s new censorship policy has, conveniently for the company, been announced and taken effect with little hubbub. But we have some more questions about it—and what impact it will have (indeed may already be having) on freedom and democracy everywhere.